Mark Selby had wanted to spend his Bank Holiday Monday watching his team Leicester City celebrate promotion to the Premier League. Instead, he did the next best thing: he spent it becoming world snooker champion, beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 18-14 in a quite extraordinary final.
With this victory, celebrated with a double fist pump and shout of triumph, the 30-year-old completed one of the most determined comebacks in the tournament's history. On Sunday evening he had looked finished, exhausted, washed up; at one point trailing by 10 frames to five; 24 hours later he was wearing the full beam smile of the world champion, with a cheque of £300,000 in his pocket. What a performance, what a turnaround, what a win; one which he had been waiting 14 years to deliver.
"My father died when I was 16, two months before I turned pro," he said, momentarily choked by the emotion of victory. "His last words to me were to win the world title. I promised him I would. So this is for him."
If it was a victory for his dad, it was hard won. Until now O'Sullivan has never looked anything but serene in the five world finals in which he has competed. He has bullied his opponents into submission with the sparkling nature of his attacking play. In his last two victories at the Crucible he took a 10-7 lead into the final day and accelerated away, surfing the wave of enthusiasm pouring down from his fans. So it was that when he arrived here yesterday afternoon in possession a 10-7 lead everyone expected history to follow: it seemed only a matter of time before the Rocket joined Steve Davis and Ray Reardon as a six-time champion.
However, that did not account for Selby, an opponent with all the adhesive qualities of a barnacle. Brilliantly preying on O'Sullivan's flaws, he checked, stalled and finally overwhelmed the champion. O'Sullivan was gracious in defeat.

Snooker (UK /ˈsnuːkər, -kə/[1] or US /ˈsnʊkər/[2]) is a cue sport that is typically played on a table covered with a green cloth or baize, with pockets at each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular full-size table measures 11 ft 81⁄2 in × 5 ft 10 in (3569 mm x 1778 mm), commonly referred to as 12 × 6 ft.

The game is played using a cue and 22 snooker balls: one white cue ball, 15 red balls worth one point each, and six balls of different colours: yellow (2 points), green (3), brown (4), blue (5), pink (6) and black (7).[3] The red balls are initially placed in a triangular formation, and the other coloured balls on marked positions on the table known as "spots". Players execute shots by striking the cue ball with the cue, causing the cue ball to hit a red or coloured ball. Points are scored by potting the red and coloured balls (that is, knocking them into the pockets) in the correct sequence. A player receives additional points if the opponent commits a foul. A player (or team) wins a frame (individual game) of snooker by scoring more points than the opponent(s). A player wins a match when a predetermined number of frames have been won.

Snooker, generally regarded as having been invented in India by British Army officers, is popular in many of the English-speaking and Commonwealth countries,[4] with top professional players attaining multi-million-pound career earnings from the game.[5] The sport is now increasingly popular in China.[6] Touring professional players compete regularly around the world, the premier tournament being the World Championship, held annually in Sheffield, England.